£140 million investment boost to Imperial spin-out companies

A leading technological development company, Imperial Innovations, has announced that it intends to raise £140 million within the next two years, some of which will be used to fund research at Imperial College.

Imperial Innovations commercialises any scientific research and developments that are made in the university by finding a market for any products that Imperial researchers invent. A small proportion of its profits are invested back into research, enabling productive projects to fund themselves. It also helps to form and incubate spin off companies that stem from Imperial College research and developments.

Needless to say, research at Imperial is highly useful. Within the past year there have been 344 new inventions and 48 patents filed through Innovations, some of which have been greatly profitable for the university. The molecular drug, Respivert Limited, managed to raise £9.5 million in profit through sales last year. As a total, £211 million has been raised by developments since 2006, £49.7 million of which has been reinvested by Innovations.

Although Innovations specializes in business and investment, raising £140 million in 2 years is no easy task. The company intends to raise it through the sale of several million new shares to current investors in rights and warrant issues. Initial sales in are predicted to raise £55 million in January 2011 and a further £74 million by January 2013. Further contributions will be made from the sale of other shares to new investors. The company has had a good track record so far, raising £14 million for Imperial last year and over £20 million in previous years without having to undergo rights issues since 2005.

Although Innovations declare the main aim of the funds to be to increase the size of investments in spin off companies, only 40% will go towards this. The remaining 60% will fund collaborations between Innovations and other technological development companies and spin offs. "The funds will also enable us to make investments in companies founded by or based on technologies from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and University College", said Martin Knight, Chairman of Imperial Innovations. Although collaboration may reduce the influence that Imperial has over Innovations, Rector Sir Keith O Nions welcomes the association with other universities, believing that it may lead to more joint research projects in the near future.

Unfortunately, the £56 million intended for Imperial is only for Imperialís associated spin off companies and areas of research already in the Innovations pipeline, so isnít accessible to other academic researchers.